The Geoblocking Project

Swinburne screen studies lecturer Ramon Lobato has just finished leading an international research project on geoblocking and global video culture. Geoblocking, which restricts access to online content based on a user’s IP-address and location, is a common feature of video platforms. Australian audiences are now very familiar with the experience of being told “this video is not available in your region”. But the wider implications for global media consumption are not well understood.

This project asked the questions: How are people in different parts of the world negotiating geoblocking restrictions? And what effects does this have on transnational flows of digital video? Working with researchers in nine nations – the US, Sweden, Australia, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Brazil, Cuba, China – Ramon investigated connections between geoblocking, internet filtering, and consumer circumvention. Findings have been published in an edited book, Geoblocking and Global Video Culture (coedited by Swinburne alumnus James Meese), published by Institute of Network Cultures in early 2016.